Maybe I watched too much Star Trek as a kid.  If you look at the very basic foundation of their society, they don’t work for a paycheck and go home at the end of the day and try to forget about what they do during the day.  They all work at a job that is enjoyable to them and is a challenge to them, and in exchange they are provided with all of their “needs” and their reasonable “wants.”  Look at the crew in Engineering.  Sure there are days where things break and things don’t go according to plan, but the overwhelming majority of their time is divided between general upkeep of the systems, and research into bettering those very systems.  They figure out a way to attach the sensor array to the warp drive to exponentially increase the range and accuracy of those sensors.  Sure that attracted an alien race from another dimension that wanted to experiment on crew members, but the point is they were working to better the equipment so they could increase the learning efficiency and potential for their society.  They don’t go home at night wondering if what they did is going to make a difference, and by the same token they don’t expect get rewarded with physical items for major accomplishments.  The drive is in the pride of the work they perform.

The unfortunate reasons that our society can not support true socialism at this point is primarily because of two main points, the first being corruption.  When you get leadership (or even middlemen) that find ways to cheat the system and siphon off their own resources, that creates a drain on the society.  As they gain more and more resources, their power to drain even more grows and creates a vicious cycle.  The rich get richer, and the society gets poorer.  This also applies to literary works.  Copyright was originally designed to allow a performer or author to sell their works without competition for the first (approximately) decade, after that their work would move into the public domain so that the entire society would be able to benefit.  Unfortunately we have corrupt leadership in place that has taken the intent of copyright and extended it to allow a media cartel to run the show.  No longer can a budding author take a book from 10 years ago and change key elements in the story and re-write it into a new work based on the original.  This is a prime example of taking a socialist idea and killing it with corruption.

The second reason is there are way too many people in our current society that are more than happy to freeload off of whomever they can, and do the least amount of work they can to get by.  Why work when they can get whatever they want anyway?  Our society even encourages this behavior right now, with government “assistance” programs designed to take the benefits away if a person even tries to get ahead and get off of the program.  A person receiving a disability (or SSI) payment every month will lose that money if they try to work extra in order to get ahead.  Even worse, they are not allowed to save any money.  The SSI payments are designed to help with basic living and medical expenses.  If the person were allowed to save up $5-10K, they would be able to afford the medical expenses out of their own pocket and would no longer need SSI every month to play catchup on the medical debt.  Instead, they are told they have to spend every dime they make or they will lose the assistance.  It is no longer an assistance program to help a person get ahead, it is a full time job designed to keep them from getting ahead.

Capitalism isn’t all bad either.  When people work hard and save their money, ideally they are able to use that money to help society by donating to charities, building community centers, and things along those lines.  The problem is too many people don’t understand this and hold onto their money so tightly that it doesn’t do anybody (including themselves) any good.  For a good example of the way to do it, take a look at Bill Gates.  This man has more money than anyone could ever possibly need.  He set up a non-profit organization (Gates Foundation) that he funnels his money through to do amazing things to help the citizens of our little planet.  Even though the company that made him his money has a reputation for being money grubbing and heavy handed, he still chooses to take his own share and use it for good.

There are so many problems in this world today, but rather than working together to solve them as a group, we tend to pick our own little slice and try to make sure it is given the priority.  Until we all learn to work towards a common goal as a society and move all of our actions in line with that goal, we will never progress beyond where we are now.  Unfortunately we spend too much effort on propping up the failures rather than emphasizing the successes.  All I can do is raise my children to work at something they enjoy and to be proud of the work they do, and maybe someday we’ll be ready to become a true socialist society.

My personal opinion is that we have the “victim” mentality so entrenched into our society that we look for reasons to cry foul rather than

raising an alarm when something truly heinous happens.  Instead of laughing at something intended to be a joke, we let it get under our skin.  We try to hard to be “politically correct” that we’re willing to be very drab just to make sure we don’t accidentally offend someone.

The reason racist jokes are offensive is because we allow them to be offensive.  Take the classic Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles as a prime example.  I’ve heard that Cleavon Little (the black star of the movie) was questioned as to why he would star in such an “offensive” movie that constantly uses the “n-word.”  He explained that by poking fun at the blatant racism in that movie it took most of the negative connotations away.  How can anyone who sees the movie take racism seriously?  They took a very derogatory term and turned it into a joke.  Also by the end of the movie all of the people who were complaining about a colored sheriff were glad to have him there, so it showed exactly how racial prejudice accomplishes nothing.  After producing the movie, supposedly they received many complaint letters from people, but the interesting thing is all of them were from caucasians, not blacks who would be the ones to take offense.

A more recent example of a movie which treats racial stereotypes as a joke is Undercover Brother staring Eddie Griffin.  Its been a long time since I’ve seen it, but I remember the opening scene of the movie shows Eddie’s character in a stereotypical big “afro” hair style driving in a convertible, skidding tires around corners, while never spilling a drop of the orange (or was it grape) soda in his hand.  He gets to headquarters and the “password” to get in was a secret handshake with a robotic arm, where it replies “You’ve got soul!” before it lets him in.  If you get down to it, it is using several “black” stereotypes, as well as essentially saying Caucasians don’t have a soul.  Is it being “offensive” to everyone?  No, its just a joke!

Where do we draw the line over what is considered hateful or what is funny?  I’m a fat, Caucasian nerd, with glasses/contacts, semi-blond hair, a receding hairline which I normally just shave off completely, and I listen to eurodance music.  Do you know how many jokes I’ve heard that apply to something that I could take offense to? I don’t though because they’re funny! They aren’t meant to be hurtful so why should I allow them to bother me?  If we’re to say it is wrong to make a joke about a particular group’s skin color or religion, why don’t we say it is wrong to make jokes based on a group’s weight or hair color?  What about making jokes based on people from a particular region or state?  How about a profession such as being a lawyer?  Nearly every joke made is at someone’s expense, even if is at the expense of the joke teller themselves.  Show me one person who hasn’t told at least one blonde joke in their life, or a joke about a priest and a rabbi, or any number of similar joke and I’ll show you someone who has no sense of humor.

The black woman the mayor sent the joke to blew this thing completely out of proportion.  What did this accomplish?  Nothing except to draw attention to the image that would not have gone further had she simply deleted it.  Instead it was on the national news and put out on the Internet for everyone to see and pass along.  Even though the mayor appologized, she still said “it will be difficult for [us] to work together.”  I can agree with her there!  Now the mayor will be afraid to say anything to or around her just in case she decides to take offense to something and make it out to be some form of harassment.  I’m sorry, but if she felt the need to rat him out to the national press over something as trivial as this rather than deleting it and asking him not to send her things like that in the future, I wouldn’t want to be friends with her or work with her any longer either.  Talk about creating a “hostile work environment!”

The longer we allow these things to drive our emotions, the longer it will take to put an end to racism and hatred in general.  Well, I thought I would play some basketball this evening, but we all know “white men can’t jump.”  I guess I’ll just go home to my parents’ basement, order a pizza and drink Mountain Dew, while I play video games and look at adult magazines.  Sheesh.

Anyone who knows anything about taxes knows that the tax code is so confusing that unless you’re filing a 1040EZ form, you need to use a professional service or product in order to make sure it is OK.  Some of us are just above the “EZ” level and simple do-it-yourself options like Turbotax suffice.  Others, and I believe Daschle would fall into this category, really have no choice but to use a good CPA to make sure they are doing everything by the book.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume there was no intentional deception on the part of Daschle and it was in fact a legitimate oversight.  With that said, that tells me there are 2 parts to the problem here.  First of all, his CPA was incompetent.  A CPA worth their weight in salt would have been asking enough questions of him to catch this mistake before they were filed, or at least long before it reached the $150K point.  I think he could have saved himself by pointing this fact out.  “I’m sorry, my CPA made a gross mistake.  I trusted their professional opinion and they unintentionally misled me.  I’ve paid the back taxes and subsequent penalties owed, and will be having my completed tax return reviewed by a 2nd CPA before filing from now on to make sure this never happens again.”  No harm, no foul, and he’d probably already be confirmed as HHS Secretary by now.

Whether or not it was a mistake by the CPA, this does expose a very large problem with our tax system today: its horribly overcomplicated.  If a CPA doesn’t know whether use of a car is a gift or considered income, when it is their sole job to know, we have a problem.  Americans spend an estimated $300 Billion dollars per year on tax preparation services of some sort, and this does not include the cost to keep the IRS in place to monitor and enforce the tax rules.  How much more money could Americans and American Corporations save if they could keep and invest this otherwise wasted money?

This is one of the reasons I’m a big proponent of the Fair Tax.  In a nutshell, the Fair Tax system eliminates the income tax system and implements an across-the-board Federal sales tax.  Calculations show that the tax rate would be in the 30% range, which would keep about the same revenue going to the government, and keep people’s tax liability roughly the same.  Talk about simple!  No more keeping shoeboxes full of receipts to sort through. No more IRS audits to see that you claimed an extra $50 in deductions that you weren’t entitled to.  Did you buy groceries today?  You paid your taxes.  Did you buy that new vacuum sealer for your business?  Your taxes are paid.

Under the current proposed Fair Tax, every person in the country with a social security number would receive a “prebate” for all taxes paid up to the poverty level.  This means low income families would effectively not be taxed at all, which is how it works today for the most part.  Any money spent above and beyond the poverty level would all be taxed at the same rate, meaning “the rich” will be paying exactly the same tax rate that the “middle class” families do.  It is simply a fair way to do it.

Another huge advantage to the fair tax is there would be no more tax on savings and investment!  This has phenomenal result.  Since only spending would be taxed, any money placed into savings and into investments would grow completely tax free.  It will also mean you can invest more too.  If you make $40K and are taxed at say 20% if you have enough deductions, you have $32,000 after taxes are paid.  If you spend $30K, that will leave only $2,000 to invest.  Under the fair tax, if you spend that same $30,000 you would have $10,000 left to invest.  I understand that you would probably spend more than $30,000 due to the increased sales tax, but it would make it easy for people to see where that money is going and would encourage them to save rather than spend.  That $7 fast-food cheeseburger meal looks a lot less appetizing when you know you’re going to have to spend over $9.50 by the time federal and state sales tax is added.  The old TV may last a bit longer when the $1,000 replacement will now be over $1,300.  It is what is already happening, except it moves the tax visibility to the cash register receipt rather than seeing a number on the pay stub.

I believe if the Fair Tax were in place, we wouldn’t have all of the controversial “tax oversights” by people in the spotlight.